Deadly Egyptair hijacking in Malta recalled

sandro pace

Nov 26th 2009, 01:27

iCocker

Assaulting a hijacked aircraft is no battlefield, and requires precision, timing and accuracy, rather than blind bravery, which toy soldiers or not, the egyptian NCOs clearly did not have. This was an elite unit, but still at its 'infancy'. It is a recognised fact that with the arrest of the US personnel, the Egyptians lost reference, and this was one of the contributions to the massacre, and the rushness of all.

All the success assaults you've mentioned made use of sophisticated technological surveillance equipment which aided the attack, and meticolous planning. The same equipment that was denied in this hijack, due to misguided and ignorant political decisions. As I said earlier, if American instructors aiding the Egyptian team were ok for the Egyptian government, the Maltese government should not have interfered with this.

But the administration of the time, fortunately uneventful and now forgotten, wanted to show that it was more arab than the arabs. The only good thing in all this is that no Maltese got hurt.
But no argument in the world can relieve and absolve the administration of the time from part of the blame.

Christian Sciberras

Nov 26th 2009, 00:12

"Lets just hope we never have to see this kind of terrorism again especially in Malta."
You're kidding....right?

Even just several months ago, Maltese embassies and the OPM lost a battle in digital terrorism.
And if tried again, they'd lose in mere seconds.

Security in Malta is a joke. Hint, does anyone care about security? No, you simply live in that little cosmos of yours. We'll see what happens when the next terrorists comes... Mark my words.

carmel pace

Nov 25th 2009, 20:16

Although people are quick to comment on the MAltese "mistakes" they don't seem to mention the fact that the hijackers boarded the aircraft in Greece with a large amount of greneades and also pistols so much for their security organization. If one were to look at the Munich olympic disaster Author Simon Reeve, writes that the shootout with the well-trained Black September members showed an egregious lack of preparation of the German authorities. They were not prepared to deal with this situation.

German authorities made a number of mistakes. First, because the army could not participate in the attempted rescue, as the German armed forces are not allowed to operate inside Germany during peacetime
, Schreiber stubbornly decided to continue with the rescue operation as planned, and important information could not reach the snipers since they had no radios. It is a basic tenet of sniping operations that (at least two snipers for each known target, or in this case a minimum of ten) should have been deployed to neutralize as many of the terrorists as possible with the first volley of shots.] It was this most basic failure of experience and technical foresight that led to the subsequent disaster.

JAFarrugia

Nov 25th 2009, 17:24

The Egyptian military will never give it's version beacause of one simple fact, it never had a plan in the first place, they paniked and messed up the mission completely. I'm sure the US had a delta/navy seal team ready somewhere close and as soon as the Egyptian team got wind of this they said its now or never. The mission would not have been an easy one for any special forces but i'm sure the death toll would have been far less if the delta or navy seal or maybe even the SAS had been involved, Bad decission in my eyes not to grant it.

Lets just hope we never have to see this kind of terrorism again especially in Malta.

iCocker

Nov 25th 2009, 14:11

@ Sandro Pace

Military units are not teams of football, apart from officers there are NCOs to lead and these are trained units not toy soldiers. A statement like yours means in a war situation if the officers are death the battle is won!!!!

Military interventions in such situation there have been spectacular rescues mainly by SAS, GSG9 and French Gendarmes but there were great fiascos as well, may I remind you what the German police blew up during the Munich Olympics Black September airport raid and lately the Russian Spetsnatz Elite Unit intervension on the Moscow Theatre ... no one can determine such delicate situation can end up!

The Malta incident still amaze me as the Egyptian's arsenal and bombs that were brought with them were not ideal for such a 'rescue' mission or else the storming intension was different? The breifing and plan of attack surely has not set up just before the time of attack. I think there are still many questions to be answered ...

sandro pace

Nov 25th 2009, 11:33

A grave mistake on the Maltese side was not to at least let the US instructors plan and advice the assault team, granted that the administration of the time found it politically difficult to accept a direct involvement in the assault. The egyptian assault team made a much powerful initial explosion, to begin with.

It was like taking away the coach from a football team, before an important match, just because he is not of the same nationality. Strict diplomatic and political considerations, took over from the safeguard of human lives. Unnecessarily, and due to ignorance of the leaders of the time, for if US aide personnel were ok for the egyptian government, it should have been ok for the Maltese one, and something which the maltese government should not have interfered with.

The 'westernised' PN administration that followed, would not have been so obstinantly rigid, and less lives would have been lost, had the americans were allowed to do some guidance.

tony abela

Nov 25th 2009, 10:11

@ Carmel Pace

I can confirm that all Commandos who stormed the aircraft were Egyptians. There were two American Military Officers who travelled from Cairo with them and who certified the Egyptians as well trained for the operation who were physically at the AFM Air Squadron during the storming assualt.

The fact that they attacked the aircraft before the agreed time was possibly because they were afraid that somebody will come by surprise and take over the operation. Few minutes before they attacked the plane, Malta Radar detected unknown targets at close range to Gozo but flying at very high altitudes.

carmel pace

Nov 24th 2009, 19:32

A few questions here. Did the Eygptians want the americans to take over? After all it was an Egyptian aircraft wasn't it? Can anyone confirm there were no Americans amongst the Commandos? Although the loss of life is much regreted, do those who suggest that MALTA should have called upon the USA to storm the aircraft realise the position Malta and Air Malta would have been in. Those were violent years and we could easily have become an easy target for attacks against Malta or Maltese nationals. I am no fan of KMB but i sure do not envy the PM at the time of this horrific event or anyone else who had to take these decisions. In the end the wrong doers were the hijackers and not the Government of malta.

Jesmond Micallef

Nov 24th 2009, 18:12

@iCocker, May I quote you : "Would be nice one day the Egyptian Army gives us the verdict of this mission as well." A very interesting observation indeed, if I may add. Furthermore, the liberation of hijacked aircraft is very very delicate considering the enclosed spaces of passenger aircraft. But then again cases like the Air France aircraft at Entebbe and the other at Marseille are the most famous successful operations. They show that such success can be achieved. It seems to me that whatever the political case may be it allways has its toll on innocent civilians, wether passengers, crew or even simple by-standers. May God bless all victims of violence, worldwide, whoever they are.

Pule' Carmel

Nov 24th 2009, 18:07

Would someone please comment on the Justice in all this!!!! How come the Maltese Law saw fit to imprison Ali Rezaq for a few years and the American Law saw fit to imprison him for life. Is Killing people cheaper on Maltese land?

Galea. L

Nov 24th 2009, 09:56

To those who are intimating that relations with the USA were not good, then how about the equipment given to Malta such as cranes, bulldozers and other equipment free or for very nominal payment?

iCocker

Nov 24th 2009, 09:11

Some info on the said Egyptian Commando. First of all that unit were not commandos but an Elite Special group - As Saiqa [Sajjetta]. They were trained and led by US officials, after Egypt defected from military aid from the East and started to look to the West for help after all the fiascos in their wars against Israel.

Their combat debut was a few years before Malta, if not mistaken an anti terroristic aircraft hijack in Cyprus which ended in a total fiasco. Contrary to many beleives these were not unexperienced but veterans. The plan of attack on the Malta event really conferm that their intension was clear just eliminate the opressors irelevant at the cost, the way they attacked the bombs used and not letting any Maltese interfer really gives an insight of their mission.

On the contrary all this hype of the what if the US Delta Force were used. From the track record of Delta does not really have a good history of missions that went well, just remember Mogadishu in 1991, poor inteligence and bad leadership.

Would be nice one day the Egyptian Army gives us the verdict of this mission as well.

tony abela

Nov 24th 2009, 08:23

Dr Francis Saliba.

Your last comments are unwarranted. No I do not claim any credit and I do not feel any guilt niether, as my presence at the Control Tower was in the normal course of duty that I was employed for, that is responsable for the good operation of the systems used at the Control Tower and in critical situations the sense of duty oblige you to be present at first hand all the time during the crisis. Their were no technical systems hitch-ups as my staff always done their duties and kept the systems well maintained. For this, yes I am proud of my staff who are still giving execellent service to the copuntry.

Maybe you are referring to Civil Servants who normally are in their officies in Valletta and on such occassion appears in places where they should not belong, such as Diplomatic persons that can give their contribution from any remote office, even if abroad.

K Whitehead

Nov 24th 2009, 08:17

This was one of the worst errors committed by a Maltese government. All this because we had a Prime Minister at the time who was terrified of taking any decision and someone else took it for him. And believe me this is no political statement as I would have said the same had it been a Nationalist administration.

Dr Francis Saliba

Nov 23rd 2009, 21:57

@Tony Abela

The demand of the country at that time was NOT that we "had to be strong". The demand was that Malta's involvement in that hijack would not end as ignominiously as it did and with such a terrible cost of innocent lives all due to the bungling of the wrong people at the control tower throughout that operation and the exclusion of expert help that was at hand but was disdained in a mistaken attempt to appear "strong" as you put it. It only demonstrated our weakness!

Dr Francis Saliba

Nov 23rd 2009, 21:15

@TonyAbela,

In your comment addressed to J Farrugia you boast that you were somewhere in the crowd inside the airport control tower. Are you claiming some credit for the disastrous outcome? Did you consider your presence in the Control Tower more useful than that of the American hijack experts who were being segregated from the field of operations and who belonged to the same organisation that in August had been trying to teach you something about the subject? Do you think that your presence at that terrible cock up of an antihijack operation is something to be proud of? On his part KMB offered his resignation!

Tony Abela

Nov 23rd 2009, 20:57

Dear Dr Francis Saliba, 'We had to be strong' was not my demand but the demand facing the country at the time. The rate that the hijackers were shooting the passengers was one every hour or less, and the time required to bring the Delta Force from America would have been too long for the operation. The Americans did not succeed to bring the electronic listening devices in time from Sigonella as I said before the Egyptians interest was to storm the plane to kill all hijackers. This is something proved by the way facts took place, including the fact that they wanted to kill Ali Rezaq at the hospital. If the government was soft and gave in for the hijackers requests we would have been blamed as coloborating with terrorists. The only good thing that came out from our bad experience was that Hijacking went out of fashion since then and terrorists started to find other means of reaching their evil goals. I am sure that no single person was happy that so many lives were lost, and it had to happen in Malta.

Dr Francis Saliba

Nov 23rd 2009, 20:28

@TonyAbela GREAT! So, in order to satisfy your demand: "So legally we had to be strong" we now hold the unewnviable distinction establishing a world record for the number of victims massacred during a hijack. We packed the control centre with all sorts of amateurish politicians and hangers on to the exclusion of USA qualified hijack experts who were even obliged to take off their uniforms and to be segregated out of contact with the inexperienced Egyptian commandos. We refused the use of USA manned sophisticated electronic equipment that would have saved many lives. The problem was that, out of misplaced pride and antagonism of everything American, we preferred an unsupervised Egyptian commando operation rather than expert USA assistance that was being offered with insistence.

c. camilleri

Nov 23rd 2009, 20:09

It appears that other countries offered the services of their military including the USA. Why was this offer of the USA an expert in this kind of work rejected? Why was the matter left in the hands of Egyptians who surely are not experts in this field. Of all the Ministers sitting in the control tower that day, is there one who expresses regret at having participated in this foolish decision? Why were the Americans officers sequestered? Had the US officers been allowed to go on with their business, would the loss of innocent life have been less severe? Afterwards we were told that the PM wearing a black tie had offered his resignation but wonder of wonder it was rejected by the cabinet. Big deal indeed. Why didn't the whole cabinet resigned? Could it be that the incompetence of the Egyptians troops combined with the blind pursuit of neutrality by the socialist Govt help to produce this huge loss of innocent life? Was Malta's neutrality worth the suffering and death of so many innocent victims when we know that neutrality was the price that Malta had to pay to have free and fair elections.

DVella

Nov 23rd 2009, 19:21

It seems that the prevailent message to come across from this unfortunate episode is clear . . . if the people with the right experience and training were allowed to deal with the situation (and they offered to do so but were refused access by the Maltese government at the time) then the outcome might not have been the bloodbath that resulted from the bungling efforts of the (obviously poorly trained) 'commandos'.

tony abela

Nov 23rd 2009, 18:59

Dear J Farrugia, you seems to know it all. I wonder what was your official involvement at the time. One thing is sure, that the EgyptAir Hijack was a particular hijack of its own class, as it was the only hijack that landed in Malta with death bodies who were killed within the Malta FIR and thus the murderers were subject to the Maltese Law before any operations started on land. Other persons were shot at and some of them killed and trhown out of the plane onto the tarmac at Park 4. It was a hijack that had many diplomatic implications as the hijackers were killing passengers in a selective manner depending on their nationalities. You can call my recalled facts as bluff as much as you want, but I only written about factual things as have happened, and be assurred that my memory still serves me right. Just one question if you do not mind, what first hand involvement you had in the whole event?

J Farrugia

Nov 23rd 2009, 18:25

tony abela who do you think you're trying to bluff? As if we weren't active at the time. As we dont know who gave the orders and who moved the rat's tail to achieve what would have been a colpo di scena, as if we dont know who blundered in the last moments. As if we don`t know who didn't want the professionals to come to Malta and help us overcome these dangerous terrorists. Their action resulted in this unwarranted massacre and this is the true story not yours. Years may come and years may go but the truth will never die. Go tell your warped up fairy tale to those who died and to their relatives. But not to us.

GiovDeMartino

Nov 23rd 2009, 18:10

Whenever and wherever there is a hijack, they will send for KMB for his assistance.

tony abela

Nov 23rd 2009, 17:48

Dear Bloggers, I know slightly more than what you are all saying as I was present all the time, including the time the Prime Minister was talking to the Egyptian Ambassador, the American General, who I say again came from Egypt on the same plane of the Egyptian 777 Commandos Team. The political implementation which is being given that the Labour Government was against the US Government is all false as I was one of the Maltese Officials who in August of the same year were given special training for Hijack Operations by the American State Department Officials who came to Malta specifically as cooperation with the Maltese Government of the time. During that same time, one of the US Officials who was giving us the training, expressed his opinion that before the end of the year we were going to have a very complicated Hijack Operation on our hands. The only problem was that the Egyptians wanted to kill every hijacker to show a strong hand within their political territory. One other important point was that it was the first hijack that people were murdered on Maltese Territory and Airspace. So legally we had to be strong.

Dr Francis Saliba

Nov 23rd 2009, 17:40

Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici's attendance at the following cabinet meeting wearing a black tie of mourning and informing the cabinet of his intention to resign (but not carried out) speaks volumes!

Romano Tebaldi

Nov 23rd 2009, 17:02

A very detailed analysys of how the crisis has been handled can be read on http://corpidelite.info/PirateriaAerea.html

Gorg Pisani

Nov 23rd 2009, 16:45

On that day, I was away on an exercise, so I never heard of this hijacked. (I did hear about the one Dom Mintoff helped to solve.)
Can someone tell me, 'why was the request by the US Delta Force refused'? Was it because the MLP (then in government) where against the USA and their western allies and pro Arabs and communist countries?
I am really interested about this. As I have been hearing a lot about what happened in Malta in the 60s,70s, and 80s in this paper.
My family left Malta in March 1961 and with joining the Army just two years later I did not get to hear about what was happening over there, I am sorry to say.

David Buttigieg

Nov 23rd 2009, 16:17

@T Abela,

No American was let near the scene by the Maltese authorities who handled the affair so .. let's be kind and say amateurishly, that a bloodbath was a forgone conclusion. For political reasons the most suitably trained people available, Delta force in this case, where NOT allowed to attempt rescue so it was left to what was little more then a group of thugs to do the job, bast ma 'ndhalux l-amerikani! What a disgrace!

"The United States protested to the Maltese government of the time about the U.S. personnel sent to resolve the issue having been confined to the Air Squadron HQ and the U.S. Embassy in Floriana." - Wikipedia

Personally I blame the Maltese authorities of the time.

"the Maltese government's initial refusal for U.S. anti-terrorist resources (a team led by a major-general with listening devices and other equipment) offered by the State Department through the U.S. Embassy in Malta - a decision reversed too late - contributed in no small measure to the mismanagement of the entire operation." "Mizzi, J.A. (1989). Massacre in Malta"

Roger Boyle

Nov 23rd 2009, 15:56

@J Falzon
I remember the remains too. It was dismembered on Park 2 and it did spend some time there. I don't think there were any useable parts from that carcass.

L Debono

Nov 23rd 2009, 14:14

- 'Explosive Entries' are very delicate. Only highly experienced people (real specialists) in the field can prevent failure. Delta and US Rangers experimented with this when they were preparing to rescue their hostages from Tehran. Many walls of different dimensions and structures were blown up in Fort Bragg NC weeks prior to the unsuccessful venture (mission failed for other reasons). I highly suspect that back in those days the Egyptians didn't take note of the importance of the EE method and the results were much more powerful than expected. May be if the US experts were left on the scene, a different result would have been achieved.

L Debono

Nov 23rd 2009, 14:13

I hope that after so many years that the Maltese Nation have built up a proper crisis and emergency team for such eventualities.

Following the comments below I'd like to make some points clear. The Egyptian Special Forces (777) needed leaders and advisers to follow. Back then their existence was very young and they had no previous experience. With out the much needed guidance they used what little skills they had but the implementation and application of those skills were all wrong.

- I don’t know if the Maltese Government had actually gave power to the Egyptians to act or were they called in to stand by until an ‘Authorization. To Act’ was given. It seems that there were instances that the Maltese Government had lost control of the situation, especially when the Egyptians went to the hospital looking for more terrorists.
- Communications are indispensable during such missions. For some reason there was no communications between the Maltese Government and the Maltese soldiers and the Egyptians. This was one factor that contributed to the chaos.

Dr Francis Saliba

Nov 23rd 2009, 13:25

The American experts with their special equipment on standby at Sigonella were not allowed to assist . Locally stationed American experts were held virtually incommunicado from the Egyptian commandos that the Americans had trained. They were in despair and they predicted that a massacre was likely to result from the amateurish way the whole emergency was being handled. And that is exactly what happened. Putting on a black tie after the massacre was a futile gesture.

J Falzon

Nov 23rd 2009, 13:04

I worked for a time at the Civil Aviation department around 1987 or thereabouts and still remember the carcase of the plane parked somewhere within the premises. It laid there for quite a few years if I remember correctly. I also remember the strange feeling I had when I stuck my head into the hole in the fuselage. On the outside there was all the usual noise of the airport and birds and so on, whilst inside it was absolutely quiet, with just a mild smell of burning even after all that time. Quite surreal actually, even though I would not go so far as to say it was haunted by spirits!

I believe the plane was eventually dismembered, packed into crates and sent off to be reused as spare parts. Of such is life.

tony abela

Nov 23rd 2009, 12:27

Some of the truths appears to be still remain unkown to the general public.

The Egyptian Commands were trained and guarantteed to be professionals in the job by the American General who accompanying them from Egypt. They were under his training.

In fact what exactly happened was that the Egyptians went against the agreement with the Malta Government in two basic issues:

1. They gaurantteed that they will make a rescue operation and they doine exactly the opposite when they held the Maltese Fire Rescue Personnel at gun point not to start the fire fighting. The Egyptian's intent was to make sure that no hijackers escape so much so that they were shooting at every person who managed to escape from the aircraft. Some persons had shots at their back.
2. They started the assault (instead of rescue mission) more than 30 minutes before the agreed time, so the Maltese Rescue and Security Forces were not briefed of what was going to happen before hand as there was no time for the briefing.

In conslusion, the Egyptian Forces under the command of the American General did not stick to what was officially agreed.

Dr Francis Saliba

Nov 23rd 2009, 10:15

One significant omission in the above account is the premature untrue boast on local broadcasting systems that Maltese defense forces had successfully boarded the hijacked plane and freed the passengers – soon hushed up as soon as the enormous blundering presumptious mishandling of the situation started to dawn on everyone.

anton raymond borg

Nov 23rd 2009, 10:03

One additional disgraceful aspect of this whole sorry affair was the reckless manner in which Maltese medical staff were dispatched by the authorities to the aircraft while the firefight was still going on. I am happy to say I was not there, but i know one or two unfortunate medics who were, and what they had to say about the incident still makes my blood turn cold.